On this week: WI celebrates 70th year in 1998 and BBC slammed for paying Tony Martin burglar for documentary in 2005

In our regular On This Week feature we look back to what was making the headlines in 1998 and 2005…On this week: March 3 – 9, 2005The BBC has been slammed by supporters of West Norfolk farmer Tony Martin for paying the burglar who broke into his home £4,500 to take part in a documentary. A BBC spokesman confirmed that Brendon Fearon (34) who has a long history of convictions, demanded the payment for his contribution to the drama-documentary on householders’ rights. The programme, so far untitled, is due to be shown on BBC1 next month. It will have a dramatic reconstruction of the events at Mr Martin’s Bleak House home in Emneth Hungate in August 1999. A close friend of Mr Martin, who arranged for the farmer to be interviewed free of charge, said he was “gobsmacked” when he heard Mr Fearon had been paid.

Plans to ban smoking at Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital have been approved, with health bosses agreeing to protect staff and patients from cigarette smoke during a meeting of the QEH Board Trust. The ban will cover all the QEH buildings, grounds and car parks. A decision on whether to include nurses’ flats and the hospital’s social club in the order will be made at a later date. It is planned to phase in the reforms gradually to give staff time to adjust.Churchgoers at Shouldham Thorpe have been left without a Communion cup after the theft of silverware, worth £3,500, from the church. A wafer box dedicated to villagers who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars was also among the silver items stolen from St Mary the Virgin Church. The burglars forced open the Norman west door of the church and went into the vestry where they broke into a safe and took the silver chalice (Communion cup) a silver platen or dish and the wafer box. They also stole an antique stained dark wood Bible box, measuring 2ft by 2ft 6ins, with carved circles on the front and its original lock in place, from the main body of the church.Lynn’s KL.FM has been named as Station of the Year for East Anglia in the Radio Academy Nations and Regions Awards 2004. It is the second year the UKRD Group-owned station has won the category for stations serving a population of 300,000 and under. This award means KL.FM will go forward as nominees to the Sony Award in May. Station manager and programme director, Mark Pryke, said: “To win the award once was fantastic – but to win two years in a row is more than we dared hope for.” A Downham man is set to take West Norfolk Council to court over its waste collection policy which is leaving him with bags of rubbish. The borough council is refusing to give him a second or bigger wheelie bin – even when he offered to buy one and despite the fact he had a second bin at a previous address in West Norfolk. He is challenging the council over its policy and takes his case to be examined by a judge at the Royal Courts of Justice in London to see if he can be granted leave for a judicial review, and contending that the council had a legal obligation to take away his household waste.Former Lynn Stars promoter Martin Rogers and his wife Lin jetted into London’s Heathrow Airport and almost immediately set about arranging to host the launch of his new book Forty Years On, the history of Lynn speedway. Rogers, who emigrated to Australia after selling the club’s promoting rights in 1988, is uniquely qualified to chronicle the story. He reported on the track’s first meeting on May 23, 1965, was general manager for seven years in the 1970s and promoter for five years in the 1980s.Train services from Lynn to Cambridge and London could double, and operate half-hourly, if transport plans come to fruition. Improvements to the line could also result in increased use by freight carriers. The ideas are detailed in a policy “wish list” of changes that could be made to improve public transport in West Norfolk by 2020. The plans are being prepared by the West Norfolk Partnership – a body made up of West Norfolk Council, Norfolk County Council, the police, West Norfolk Primary Care Trust and Lynn’s College of West Anglia.